Elite UK Royal Marines will lead the training of the first batch of Kenya Navy Marine Commandos.
For the 14-week course, 30 participants were selected from the Kenya Navy Special Operations (SOS) made up of the Diving Unit, Special Boat Unit, and Marines (ranger regiment).
In the announcement made by Commandant Kenya Naval Training College (KNTC) Colonel Eliud Keter on Tuesday, February 28, the elite UK team was essential in the formation of a lean Marine Commandos Unit in the Navy.
“This training journey will test your physical and mental limits but successful completion of the course will be very substantial and worthwhile to you and to KNTC at large," he added.
Furthermore, he urged the selected participants to strictly observe military discipline, personal bearing, timeliness, professionalism, and respect for authority in adherence to the strict standards of the training.
"This course is critical to the navy as it forms an important milestone in efforts of forming a fully-fledged mission of capable Marine corps," emphasised the Commander SOS Lieutenant Colonel Vincent Rono.
On his part, Royal Marines Captain Toby Robeson noted that the training will be more complicated as they were looking at how the Kenya Navy Marines operate to understand their culture of training.
"Our job here is not easy as we are not going to be training the marines as we do to civilians and recruits. However we are up to the task," he assured.
Meanwhile, the Royal Marines are the UK's Commando Force and the Royal Navy's own amphibious troops.
They are optimised for worldwide rapid response and can deal with a wide spectrum of threats and security challenges.
Additionally, they provide a unique capability and are experts in ship-to-ship operations.
"We work in small, agile teams, reacting to anything. That could mean using stealth to operate behind enemy lines or adapting combat skills to defeat threats at sea," the marine stated on its website.
This elite team uses state-of-the-art equipment in their operations, they can be deployed without host nation support and projected from the sea to conduct operations on land.
